Kamloops, B.C. — Wildfires that have forced more than 10,000 southern B.C. residents from their homes have grown despite efforts from hard-pressed firefighters, officials said Sunday.

Crews have made good progress against the three major blazes north and south of Kamloops, said Denis Gaudry of the B.C. Forest Service.

But new thermal images and calculations using GPS readings show the fires have expanded, and the forecast for continuing hot, dry weather is "not good news," Mr. Gaudry told a news conference.

He said the latest estimates put the McLure-Barriere fire, about 50 kilometres north of Kamloops, at about 84 square kilometres, almost 20 square kilometres larger than Saturday's estimate.

The Strawberry Hill fire, which threatened the Kamloops suburb of Rayleigh, has grown to about 34 square kilometres from 20 square kilometres.

And the Cedar Hill blaze, southeast of Kamloops near Falkland, is about 8.4 square kilometres, said Mr. Gaudry.

Hundreds of B.C. firefighters were being augmented from with crews from Alberta, itself facing major fire threats, and about 100 soldiers from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment in Edmonton.

An incident-management team from Ontario was also expected to arrive Sunday.

Another 250 people in the native settlement of Whispering Pines and a neighbouring subdivision were issued evacuation orders late Saturday after the McLure-Barriere fire jumped the North Thompson River.

"Crews were working overnight to establish a guard," said Glen Plummer, a public information officer for the Provincial Emergency Program. "The fire is now on both sides of the Thompson River."

With more than 350 fires burning in British Columbia, officials are mainly concentrating on the fires in the south that have menaced major communities.

The McLure-Barriere fire, which forced many of the 3,500 residents of Barriere to flee, was still burning in the downtown area and two subdivisions, Mr. Plummer said.

More than 75 houses, 150 outbuildings and three businesses were reported destroyed in the fire that started Wednesday near McLure, about 40 kilometres north of Kamloops, then raced to Barriere. There were disputed reports Barriere's sawmill had also burned.

The Kamloops-area and Cedar Hill fires have devoured more than 110 square kilometres of tinder-dry forests and grasslands.

Fire crews will get little help from the weather, Mr. Gaudry said. Temperatures that have hovered in the low-to-mid 30-degree range may cool a little but "the six-to-10-day outlook looks much the same."

Thundershowers predicted for Tuesday also bring the threat of lightning strikes.

British Columbia's fleet of aerial water bombers is growing with the addition of aircraft from other parts of Canada. But Jeff Berry, who manages air tanker operations for the forest service, said crews are being pushed to the limits of their allowed flying time.

Finally getting the fires under control always rests with the ground forces, he stressed.

"We don't put out fires from an airplane," said Mr. Berry.

Officials did not provide any new estimate of the damage caused by the fires.

Louis Creek, a village south of Barriere, lost 60 homes and the town's sawmill. There were conflicting reports of the destruction in Barriere but reporters who managed to reach the town Saturday found its sawmill intact, though several homes were destroyed.

The rampant fires — the most destructive the province has seen in 50 years — prompted B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell on Saturday to extend a state of emergency to the entire province. He first initiated the rare measure Friday to deal with fires north of Kamloops.

The McLure-Barriere fire was apparently started by a discarded cigarette. The area's other two fires at Rayleigh, a suburb of Kamloops, and near Falkland were also thought to have human causes.

The Falkland fire, which started Saturday morning about 100 kilometres southeast of Kamloops, forced about 1,000 to flee their hobby farms and acreages on the west end of the Okanagan valley near Armstrong.

That blaze rapidly grew to 15 square kilometres Saturday and closed Highway 97C at Falkland.

About 3,500 people had registered with emergency social services in Kamloops, deputy fire chief Dave Marcotte said.

About half were housed in local hotels and motels, with the rest staying in halls and gymnasiums. They could be moved to hotels once weekend visitors to the city check out, he said.

"The city of Kamloops continues to run," he said. "We still have soccer tournaments; we still have swimming meets . . ."

The hurried evacuations Friday and Saturday were orderly and largely trouble-free, said RCMP Cpl. Mike Stewart.

"We've had good co-operation from evacuees and the motoring public," he said.

Local RCMP officers, bolstered by Mounties from the Vancouver area and elsewhere, were patrolling evacuated areas and manning checkpoints on the numerous closed roads and highways in the region, he said.

"Our basic job right now is to keep the public safe as well as control the areas where the evacuations are," said Stewart.

Many evacuees anxiously sought information at the Kamloops emergency centre about whether their homes have burned to the ground.

"I'm hoping it's still standing," said Shirley Ross, who has lived in Barriere for more than 50 years. "It's devastating. I can't imagine if it's not there."

Asked when Barriere residents will be allowed to return to their homes, Mr. Plummer said: "When the evacuation order is lifted, that's when they'll know."

Joe Davies, the president of the local Industrial Wood and Allied Workers Canada, a forestry union, said the cost of replacing the mill at Louis Creek could be $40 million to $50-million.

Evacuation centres are set up in Kamloops, Vernon and 100 Mile House.

The province is doling out financial assistance through its emergency social services to evacuees.

Each person is eligible to receive $150 for new clothing. Adults and youth are receiving $42.50 for meals each day and children are getting half that amount. As well, families are getting between $70 and $100 for a hotel room.

B.C. businesses also set up a "Fire Aid" drive, asking people do donate blankets, water, sleeping bags, pillows and light clothing for evacuees at dropoff points at London Drugs stores in the Vancouver area and B.C. Interior.

Volunteers were also working with Kamloops SPCA workers to try to rescue pets and livestock left behind by fleeing residents.

So far there has been only one reported casualty, a 53-year-old Barriere man badly burned on the face and upper body when he stayed behind to help a neighbour protect his home.

The impact of British Columbia's summer of flame so far easily eclipses the most recent bad year — 1998.

That August, a wildfire destroyed 20 houses and 15 farm buildings in Salmon Arm, about 90 kilometres east of Kamloops, forcing the evacuation of 7,000 residents. Armed forces reserves were called out to help fight that fire.

Of the other fires raging across the province on the B.C. Day long weekend, the 150-square-kilometre Chilko Lake blaze was the biggest. No major communities were being reportedly threatened but the village of Scum Lake was put on evacuation alert Saturday.

B.C. officials are also watching the 310-square-kilometre Farewell Creek fire in neighbouring Washington state, which started June 29 and has crept steadily closer to the Canadian border near Keremeos. Canadian firefighters were helping their American counterparts fight it.